Three Days and Two Nights with the School Teachers, and Repeat…

So my schedule right now is 6 days per project. And I’m visiting 3 projects. Out of those 6 days, I spend 3 in a village, learning from the people, seeing the project first hand. So here are random musings….
So I’ve survived three straight days in a village, Mendki, near the famous Buddhist Stupa of Sanchi. I’ve also survived my first village assignment: understanding village dynamics, a small impact study of microfinance work done, cost benefit analysis of three families. And, after eleven self-help group meetings of about 10 women, I have a thorough understanding of the microfinance work being done in the area. I feel comfortable enough to run an SHG meeting myself, a huge accomplishment if you ask me…
Lets see, I was with a school master’s family in Mendki. Unfortunately, they were told I’m from Washington. I became the center of random questions from everyone!! Some of them were really sweet and innocent – one lady asked me: “Did you come on your scooter from Washington?” I don’t even know how to respond to such things… I’ve decided not to tell village people where I’m from.
My favorite part of the stay, or most memorable I should say, was when I was having my first cup of morning tea, a girl comes in. She says I’ve been asked to come talk to 10th grade class in the school as a role model for young women. Ummmmmm, I’m terrified at this. How am I supposed to do that?!?! Then I realized their 10th grade class is a group of four girls. We all sat in a circle on the rooftop and I talked about what it was like being a girl and becoming educated, going away from home for work, etc. It was really unnerving at first and I still can’t believe they later shyly told me that they wanted to grow up to be like me. Now this isn’t at all part of my job or job description, just something that happened to come my way because of who I was staying with.
All of this was in Vidisha. I’m now in Ichhawar (two buses and one taxi later – all by myself, of which I’m very proud). Lets see what this project location brings.
So I’m back from the three day stay at Ichhawar. My stay was again at a school master’s house. Actually it was an older man with his four sons, all school masters. It was fun because I was with a girl who is 20 years old. She kept me company at random down times. Manju (her name) had recently gotten engaged and was all giggly (everyday) about it. So, she secretly talked to him every day, but get this – she had only met him once. It was really cute because she would ask me to keep watch if any of her family members were coming.
Along with such entertainment, SRIJAN is teaching farmers to plant vegetables in the area – an experience in itself. They usually plant wheat and soybean so its hard to get them to donate a little bit of their land for the more profitable vegetables. I also had to learn really fast to identify plants and to talk to groups of men about their farming practices. Never done that before but welcome to my life.
I think I’ve rambled enough. I might elaborate in the next few days. I had to get this out before I forgot it all.